


Underwater

by BrokenApeiron, IperOuranos



Category: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Genre: M/M, mermaid au, siren au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 12:17:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13076709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenApeiron/pseuds/BrokenApeiron, https://archiveofourown.org/users/IperOuranos/pseuds/IperOuranos
Summary: Francis collects tax by sea. He finds a triton who saves his life.





	Underwater

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Underwater](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12569476) by [BrokenApeiron](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenApeiron/pseuds/BrokenApeiron). 



> IperOuranos translated this fic for me <3

Francis Wendell Pritchard had a secret. He was a tax collector, like all his ancestors before him. He travelled by sea a lot across the coastal kingdom where he was born, and which he worked for. But his secret didn’t concern his job, nor his heritage. It wasn’t about salt, crop, barley, tea, sugar. Gold. It was about the water. About something which dwell underneath it.

  
Adam had a secret as well. He fought for his people, protecting the coast and keeping coasters away from their territory. They had a friendly relationship and a blooming commerce, and no coaster came too close to the open sea. But his secret wasn’t about the strength of his muscles, or the powerful, quick push his tail gave him. Or his role as guardian of the Western Stream. It was about a boat. About something which was transported by it.

 

Their secret was somebody from the other kingdom. A man, of the other kingdom. A person they met when they couldn’t even imagine it would happen. Maybe it was destiny, Adam thought. Maybe it was the storm, Francis thought. And yet, that encounter remained fixed in their minds, for a very long time.

 

It sounded like a classic fairytale, a bucolic ballad. The story of a saint and an animal which he took care of in the forest. The tempest hit them as the sun was high in the sky. It had wiped the boat away, thorn the stern in half, and without the ship’s wheel they were lost, left without control. Francis didn’t remember anything but the water and the dark clouds. Nothing else. Just the sound of the wood cracking. 

 

Adam had run there, as he did every time one of those floating houses sunk. They often took sacks, barrels and raw materials in exchange to the rescue of coasters. Adam had swam and reached the middle of the thorn corpse of the floating house, quickly examining the depths of the sea with his grey eyes. He found some metal - gold, maybe? copper? - from a bag slowly sinking, when he saw black hair floating, hidden inside the thorn house.

 

Francis… didn’t remember much. The clouds. The rain. The sea. The raging sea... They couldn’t interpret the flight of the birds this time. He thought he would die. He knew… he didn’t have much time.

And yet, he was still breathing. When he opened his eyes, the captain’s chamber was almost as he left it. Maybe a little more messy, and a little more sloping, but definitely the same. He tried to stand up and reach the wooden door. He couldn’t balance, not on that floor which looked like he was trying to turn upside down. But he had to know, if everything was a dream. 

 

Adam blinked seeing the coaster he saved barely standing, holding on to the door as he turned pale seeing how water had almost filled the entire antechamber of the floating house. 

 

“It’s better if you go back inside. You’ll have a little more air, here. Do you feel better?”

 

He couldn’t understand if the blazing look he received in response was because of his ears (not all the coaster liked them), his being him, or the sea slowly invading his strange wooden house. Or, probably, he was just still shocked after the shipwreck. Yes, that probably was it. 

 

Francis tightened his grip on the door’s jamb until his knuckles turned white. Was he dead? Was that his personal hell? A pointy eared seaer, a triton, mocking him for… his death?! 

 

“What did I do to deserve you? Uh?! I didn’t want to die in the water, didn’t want to die in your sea! So you don’t have any right to… to…! Come and torment me even in the afterlife! I want to spend that on earth, on earth, on earth!”

 

Adam blinked again. He did that a lot when he was out of the water. But in that moment, it was utterly appropriate. He knew coasters often didn’t react well to shipwrecks, but this one was really, really weird. 

 

“It’s better if you stay here.”   
  


He tried to say, speaking slowly. 

 

“The boat isn’t near to surface anymore, and you have to recover a little before we can come back up.” 

 

He said, raising his webbed hands in a silent “I come in peace”.

 

Francis wrinkled his nose. So… he wasn’t dead? He had…? He tried to look around. The pain was more intense now, there where he hit his head. He touched it, and felt the bump under his fingers, just below the nicely tied ponytail. Yeah. He just gave an awful impression of himself to the triton.    
  


“Mmmmrh.”   
  


He grumbled, cheeks flushing red. He tried to hide it.   
  


“... Why am I in here?”   
  


He asked, his voice sharp. 

 

Adam put on his kindest smile. It looked like the coaster needed some reassurance. They told him those creatures were complicated.   
  


“I brought you here. It was the only chamber with some air still in it. Before I could take you to the shore, I needed to look for other survivors of your species.”   
  


He tried, cautious.   
  


“But now we can go.”    
  


He leaned forward from the water, ready to take him in his arms.

 

Francis was ready to complain. He knew that was the normal procedure, but he felt uncomfortable anyway. Leaning in the arms of a triton? Letting said triton carry him like a sissy? No, he was manly, a-and strong, a real man! He would defend his masculinity, and refuse to... Hi glanced at the other’s body. The first thing he noted was his chest. The skin darker than his, similar to a dark shape of gold, his pecs were perfectly formed, and broad, and… low. The room between the collarbone and his pecs. God. They weren’t so large, but they were perfectly inserted in his broad chest and in his perfect abs, but at the same time… soft. He had the most beautiful, sexiest body he had ever seen. 

  
“... Aaah.”   
  


He said, not really able to add everything. So he found himself in his arms, his crooked nose pressed against the short body hair of his chest. He smelled of black seaweed.

 

Adam held him tighter against his chest. He looked down, and smiled at him again.    
“Relax now. Take a deep breath.”   
He whispered with his husky voice, and then he slowly dived in the cold water.

Finally able to see clearly again, he pushed himself quickly outside the floating house, swimming toward the surface. He was monitoring the coaster’s heartbeat. Whenever it became too fast he leant towards him, and as the other opened his mouth in surprise, he sealed his lips with the other’s, gently pushing oxygen in his body. Then he slowly broke the contact, smiling softly, as he kept swimming up. 

 

Frank didn’t even know where to start with his complaints. Too much water. Too much pressure. Too cold. Too dark. Ohmygod I’m gonna drown. And then there they were, the triton’s lips kissing him. Beautiful. Seductive. More Kisses. That mouth on his dick. No. He would have never ever admitted his thoughts during those moments, and the second their lips parted he was in control again. Horror. Gross. A fish. A fish violated him. Yes, that was what happened. He couldn’t even finish his path of thoughts because there wasn’t water around him anymore, but rain and winds of storm. They reached the surface.

 

Adam swam until they reached the shore, holding the coaster with his other arm. Every time he saw a wave coming he shiftly slipped under water, the black tail rippling the water on the surface. When he reached the shore, the rain was still falling heavy. He gently laid the other down, smiling again. Only then Francis felt free enough to push him away, disgust painted on his face. 

 

“You kissed me!”   
  
He said, emphasizing the word, as he slowly pulled back.   
  
“You violated me… You touched me without my consent!”   
  
He spat out, the heart pounding hard in his chest. 

 

Adam was ready to ask the usual questions - are you gonna be okay? Do you know where we are? Are you away from home? - when he felt the other pushing him away. He staggered, clumsy in shallow water. He looked at the coaster with wide opened eyes, pupils dilated with concern.

 

“You shouldn’t have done that. It’s… gross!”

 

The other continued, as he brushed his mouth with the leafen sleeve of his shirt. Adam tilted his black haired head to the side, lips tightened in discomfort. 

 

“I’m sorry-- I just wanted… to give you… oxygen. And by the way, I thought you liked that since you started emitting pheromones-”   
  
He tried to say, mortified, but then he saw him turn around and limp on the sand. He grabbed something, and the moment right after Adam had a cut on his face. 

 

“Go away! Fish!”   
  
Pritchard yelled, his voice trembling.

Adam looked at the long haired coaster. He touched his wounded cheek, and without saying a word he turned his back on the coast. He didn’t see the piece of steel that the wind was throwing against him.

Francis wanted to warn him. He heard the hissing sound above his head, and lift a hand towards his saviour. But only a choked sound left his throat, when the triton’s side was already dripping blood, a long wound opened in his skin. Adam bent down in the water, and a primordial, animal growl emerged from his lips. Those lips Frank wanted so much on his body again. Pritchard saw the sharp teeth and crawled away a little more, scared. Then he stood up and ran away from the creature.

Francis ran. The kiss, those teeth, the chest, that sound, that terrible growl… it was too much for him. He stopped only when he couldn’t run anymore, and hid behind a tree, soaked in seawater and rain. Yeah, he was scared. But he left the triton helpless against the elements, and wounded. He had to go away, he thought. The creature could come back to his home alone. But what if he couldn’t? A lot of thoughts later, he sighed, stood up, and walked towards the beach again.   
  
It took him a while to find him. The trail of blood had been partially cancelled by the waves. But in the end he found some red tracks between the rocks. It  was a natural cave, well protected. The water was at a stable level. Francis  cautiously walked in, climbing the rocks to see inside from above. At the first try, he came back hiding behind the rocks almost instantly. He closed his eyes, swallowed, then he leaned over the edge of the rock again. Adam was resting laying on his back, the webbed hands pressed against his side, trying to contain the blood loss. 

The head, with its ruffled black hair, was leaning against the rock, his sharp teeth grinding in an inhuman growl. Those teeth could rip his throat open so fast he wouldn’t even see that coming, when they were in the water. The tail moved weakly, half down in the water, and his big grey eyes were hidden under the eyelids, his nose up and his whole face a mask of pain. For the first time, Francis really understood who treated them as animals. Those fangs, those noises, they couldn’t belong to a creature of God. That tail, that body which invited to embrace your inner bestiality. He swallowed. He already decided to at least try and help the triton… the fish. 

He stood up, letting the other see himself. Adam moved, probably he had heard him. He opened an eye, the pupil dilated so that he could see Francis clearly, even under the dark clouds. He grinned his teeth, but he didn’t growl.

Francis climbed over the rocks, and landed with a little plop in the water that still covered the triton’s tail. He knelt in the sand, trying to look closely at the wound. He let his hands up, let the triton see them, and when the creature closed his eyes he tried to touch him. The cut had ripped a muscle, probably, but no organs. Francis took off his soaked jacket and tried to wrap it around the triton’s sides.

“You’re too heavy I can’t lift you up, help me.” He said dryly.

Adam took a deep breath, then let out a growl when the muscles tensed. Frank wrapped the jacket around him, then made a knot on the bleeding side.

“We need to find someone who can treat this. You stay here, I’ll go find help.”

He decided, then he stood up and looked around him. No building in sight, not on the shore. But maybe, in the land, he would have found someone. The white shirt disappeared in the woods as he walked away rapidly.

Adam opened an eye to look at the sea, his chest moving rapidly as his breaths. 

With the pressure applied by the coaster’s piece of clothing the bleeding had stopped. He would have felt better in the sea.

Slowly, painfully he crawled until he reached the water, leaving a long trail behind him.   
  
The noise of the water splashing, the noise of the seagulls flying after the storm. It was confusing. He was too tired to tolerate it.

When he finally could sneak his head under the water, he found his home. When Francis came back to see how he was doing, he found only the trail of his tail leading to the sea. 

~*~

A month has passed since the shipwreck. Francis had started to travel again, moving from a port to another. He tried to ask some seaer about a wounded triton, but no one could help him.

During his travel he always stood on the bridge, looking the far aways coast, as he expected to find him on the shore.

But it never happened, and he could see himself how much of a fantasy it was. So he curled up inside a shell of anger, guilt, and in the memory of a kiss and his reaction driven by fear. That day wasn’t different.

Or maybe it was? Francis squinted his eyes. There was something, on the stripe of land, something familiar. It didn’t take long to drop the anchor and take a boat to reach the coast. 

And there it was, the circle of rocks in which the triton hid. The blood had been washed aways by the water and by the little crustaceans, but it was definitely it. As he was thinking, Francis walked into the circle, and touched gently the rocks. His hand touched something soft, hidden between a rock and the next. Curious, he tried to pull, until his jacket came out, washed and covered with salt crystals. 

Francis blinked. It surely was his jacket, he wasn’t wrong about that. The one he wrapped around the… He turned quickly his head, looking everywhere for a black tail, a bare chest.    
Nothing.

He looked and the jacket again, and opened it slowly. At the center, it was a little wooden tablet.   
“Adam, guardian of the Western Stream. Thank you for saving me. I give you back your cloth, hoping to see you again at Cape Korn.”

Francis remained silent, reading the writing carved in the wood. Adam. The triton who saved him… He held the jacket at his chest, and looked back. Once he was back on the ship, he looked for the route to Cape Korn. It wasn’t far. It was not on his normal itinerary, because it was guarded by an underwater bastion of the seaers. But if Adam was there, he would have gone there. 

More than a month has passed since he rescued the coaster. Adam had easily found other tritons who helped him, but he didn’t throw away the cloth that saved him. He brought it with him, as it could take him to the coaster. In fact, despite his behaviour… Adam liked him. With that jacket he proved he didn’t hate him, he was just overwhelmed by fear. There was still hope.

While the doctors treated his wound, he thought of a way to leave him a message. He took a piece of wood from a wrecked ship and carved a message that would have led the coaster to him. Out of danger, but still in pain because of the wound, Adam left the message that night, hoping the other would have find it. Coasters were very resourceful, after all.

Or so he thought. But his castaway never came, and he floated around the steeples of the Western Palace looking at the surface, waiting for a ship.

But nothing came down from the shadows he saw. Adam kept his head up, as he felt the new skin growing on his side. Maybe he just should have let it go, but he couldn’t.

He found himself full of surprise when something came down from the shape of a little, slow ship. Without even think about it, he moved his tail and swam towards the bubbles moving in the water, and saw the body of a long haired coaster. Adam found himself in front of the human, showing himself naked in front of him, his look serious. 

“I’m sorry”

Said he bubbles floating away from his mouth.

“I shouldn’t have hit you. I just wanted to say… Thank you.”

Adam’s face was lighten up by the sweetest smile Francis ever saw. He swiftly swam near him, closing the distance that separated them, and just like the first time, he passed him new air kissing him.

“You don’t have to worry. You’re safe. I’m safe. This is what matters, after all.”

He whispered as he touched gently his hair floating on his shoulders. 

Francis tried to smile softly, for once. After all those thoughts, those days, finally he had paid his ransom. He found him. Safe. Happy.  “I was so afraid I would never knew if you were alright or ... “ 

He whispered, against his mouth. Adam smiled, and slowly let his tongue slide in the other’s mouth, to kiss him gently.

“I’m here.” He then added, parting gently their lips.

Francis closed his eyes. He stroked his face, grabbed his hair. They were soft and silky, like seaweed. He kissed him again, breathing air from his mouth from time to time. He didn’t realize his body was floating free in the water. Adam closed his eyes, stroking his face, slowly, to feel its shape under his fingers. They were together.

Francis Wendell Pritchard had a secret. An underwater lover, a triton waiting for him at the seaers’ bastion of the Western sea. A lover he reached every time he passed there. A seaer that once saved his life. And he was happy.

Adam had a secret. A coaster he loved, and he waited patiently for him to dive underwater to come back to him. A coaster that once saved his life. And he was happy.


End file.
